This invention relates to a compressor, and more particularly, to a compressor which is designed to be brought to a halt when any abnormal operation of the respective constituent members of the compressor occurs and/or when the temperature inside the compressor rises abnormally.
One example of a compressor is a reciprocating compressor in which compressed air is designed to be discharged by the reciprocating motion of the piston connected to the connecting rod when the crankshaft is driven and rotated by the drive device, such as a motor or the like. With this type of reciprocating compressor, when the bolts for securing the cylinder fail to properly fulfill their function, the cylinder may, for example, start to vibrate. This would lead to the possibility of the connecting rod shearing off. However, there has to date been no capacity to provide conventional compressors with something like an abnormal-state detector.
Therefore, since with conventional compressors it is impossible to be made aware of the presence of an abnormal condition such as that where the constituent members of the compressor vibrate excessively, shear off or are deformed, or where the temperature thereof rises abnormally, the compressor is kept running even after such an abnormal state has arisen, Under such a condition, it may happen that tremendous stress is unexpectedly caused to act on the connecting rod such as to cause it to shear off. Nothing like an abnormal-state detector capable of detecting such shearing off of the connecting rod has conventionally been provided for compressors. As a consequence, crankshafts are kept running even after a connecting rod has sheared off, which causes the connecting rod to repeatedly and violently strike against the crankcase, cylinder and piston. Thus, the problem with conventional compressors is that the influence of the damaged connecting rod can be significant as it may cause secondary damage to develop, such as the case where a sheared-off connecting rod damages the crankcase, cylinder and piston. This is especially true when considering the recent tendency for lightweight compressors to be used in a wide range of applications. In these circumstances, it may happen that crankcases and so forth are made of die cast aluminium; in such cases the members described above would be so violently damaged as to be unusable if struck by the connecting rod.
In view of this, an object of the present invention is to provide a compressor which can solve the above-mentioned problems.